High Water
by YFWE
Summary: Kovu returned often to the spot where it happened.


**Hadn't written something in forever and was feeling rusty, so here's me shaking off the cobwebs while I try to come up with some cool stuff down the road.**

"**High Water"**

Kovu returned often to the spot where it happened.

Some days, when he had a sliver of spare time, he would venture to the ravine, if only to stand for a few moments, letting the breeze whip through his dark mane as he stared into the chasm. Occasionally, a small rock might tumble from the top of the gap, or a lone bird might hop through the dusty ground beneath him in search of food, and when this happened, Kovu would blink, pulling him to reality from the long, delirious look he had given the place, as though he were in a deep trance. When such a thing occurred, he knew it was time to leave, and turned back toward Pride Rock.

But on other days, particularly the day after an abundantly successful hunt, the lion would come out to the ravine to stay much longer. There was no shade immediately beside the gorge, so if the weather was arid enough, he would find the nearest tree. There, Kovu rested, his gaze in the same trance-like state. He would lay for hours, until it was nearly too dark too see his home in the distance. Though the Pride Lands' most potent opposition had been vanquished, there were still evils lurking in the night.

He wasn't sure if anyone knew that he was going to the ravine, nor did he care much if they did. Lions disappeared for hours at a time all the time. He did not think much of them. Why should much be thought of him?

The moon had undergone a full cycle by the time rain found the Pride Lands, ending the minor drought that began following the reunification of the Pridelanders and Outlanders. The rain shower had been hotly anticipated by most members of the pride, who knew it to bring nourishment for the animals and plants throughout the land. Kovu, too, welcomed the thin streaks of rain that washed over the savannah one evening, steam rising from the dusty ground as its thirst was quenched at last. He had been waiting for the rains for quite some time, especially a storm that might carry with it enough force to flood the ravine.

In his eyes, the storm had. And so, another trip to the long gorge that split the Pride Lands was in order.

Perhaps he would find her.

The day was cool and the ground still slightly damp from the previous evening's rain. The occasional cloud bank passed over the sun, coating the land in a pleasant shade. Animals crowded around the nearby oasis and nearby other bodies of water, thankfully lapping up the remnants of the storm. A few young ones played gleefully in the remaining puddles.

Kovu excused himself that morning and left for the ravine by midday. He had told no one of his departure - not even Kiara, who had left his side at dawn and hadn't been seen since. Kovu figured she had gone off to survey the grounds for hunting possibilities.

By the time he reached the ravine, much of the water that had passed through its boundaries was gone, replaced by a miniscule trickle of liquid. Gazing over the edge, Kovu could see its muddy ground, in which the occasional twig or other object stuck.

He squinted, perusing the gorge to the best of his ability. But aside from that which he had already seen, there was nothing.

Kovu let out a long sigh, straightened himself, and began walking alongside the ravine, directionally against the small trickle of water's current. Retracing the steps he had first taken the day after her death.

He and Kiara had walked there after the fight, when the reunification of the prides had finished. She didn't say much. Neither had he.

Kovu had wanted to go. He didn't expect to find his mother, though a part of him wanted to dearly. Call him crazy, he had told Kiara, but he wanted closure. Maybe he could find her - or what was left of her.

Zira had been a wicked being, and had met a fitting fate. And yet, Kovu could not hate her.

That was why he had gone to the ravine the day after her death. And that was why he continued venturing there, even on the days when the ground was so hot that it practically burned one's paws.

The ravine was all he had left of her.

Kovu found the place where one could cross to the other side of the ravine, a spot where the two sides were close enough together that he could jump across. He didn't go there often, preferring the side closer to Pride Rock, as there were at least a few more shade trees nearby. But there had been where Zira had fallen into the gorge, meeting her cruel end. It was there that he felt closest to her.

The reason for his longing for closure was tough to explain, even to those closest to him. Kiara hadn't asked, mind you, but the subject had been casually brought up more than once by others. He never had an answer, or at least an exact one.

But in his many days lounging beside the ravine, lost in his thoughts, he began to formulate a response. He might not ever say it to others - was it there business, really? - but at least he could finally answer himself.

Her machinations aside, Zira was his mother, and the only real parent he had ever possessed. Scar, his false father, had been in his life only briefly, and had barely acknowledged the young cub other than to choose him as his successor. Vitani and Nuka had been there to varying extents, sure, but it was his mother that had been the biggest constant in his life.

Even though she was blinded by hate and fervent passion and became only more so later in life, Kovu felt affection for her. She had borne him, and had raised him from a cub. Without Zira, he might as well have died young.

And when the high water took her away that fateful day, he felt a twinge at his heart. A gap, as though part of it had left his chest and might never return.

There. He was at the place where it occurred. The outcropping of rock, off which Zira had fallen, remained virtually unchanged. His gaze followed his mother's projectile motion, down into the riverbed. There was no way she had survived the fall - he reminded himself of this often. Truthfully, he had only ever looked for her body.

And that was the reason he'd come to the ravine that day. Perhaps, he thought, the water current had turned up new objects that had been buried in the mud from the previous rain. Maybe his mother's body had not floated all the way down the gorge, which emptied into a river that stretched for as far as the eye could see. Maybe it had hit a snag, and he could see it, maybe even rescue it, before various little scavengers came to steal away an easy meal.

But as he walked along the ravine's edge, he found nothing. No sign of a body, or even of bones that had not been visible prior. Disappointment clouded Kovu's mind, and he felt himself drifting off into a cluttered trance.

Her voice brought him back.

Kovu whirled around. She had been following him, though at a safe distance. She had wondered if he would come out to the gorge that day.

He stood there, allowing the lioness to come to him. She nuzzled his neck once, timidly. She did not know what her actions might bring, and whether or not the Kovu she knew was in his right mind. But she felt she had to talk to him, to get him through his struggle.

"I don't think you're going to find her, Kovu," said Kiara with a slow shake of her head. "It's been so long since she died now... you understand that, right?"

Kovu could say nothing. He knew she was likely right, though he did not want to believe it.

"Kovu... I've let you come out here by yourself for a while, and you never talk to me about it. Even though I would listen. I would listen all day, if it helped you make sense of this. ...I just have one question now."

The lion cocked his head, staring into Kiara's reddish eyes.

"Do you blame me?" she asked.

"What?" Kovu spoke finally, eyes blinking quickly as he stood up straight.

Kiara trembled, her gaze finding her front paws and her head hanging. "I just... I feel like you do. Don't you? Don't you blame me for her death?"

"No... no, why would I?"

"You don't? Because _I_ sure do!" she cried, turning away from Kovu and facing the ravine. "If I had just saved her... I tried... if I had..."

Kovu didn't know what to say at first. He never considered the possibility that he blamed his mate for his mother's death, and though it was fleetingly a tempting option, he quickly stuffed the thought down deep as he hesitantly embraced the lioness.

Kiara waited a little while before speaking again. "I thought... I thought you _hated_ me for it," she breathed, "because she was still your mom, even though she'd done some pretty nasty things and wanted to kill us. I just didn't want anyone else to die, and I... well, she wouldn't grab hold, but I tried... I tried...

"That's why I didn't say anything the day after, when we came back here. I figured you'd come back here today because it had rained... I just wish there was a way I could have saved her from the water. I wish there was a way to bring you back to being the Kovu I used to know."

The lion's eyes darted between Kiara and the ravine beside them. In the back of his mind, there was a longing to explore further into the gorge, to see if Zira's body had surfaced. But it was much quieter now. Less significant.

Kiara looked up at the dark brown lion, tears staining her pelt. "Could you forgive me? Ever?"

"Of course I'd forgive you. If anything, it's you who should try to forgive me. Or I'm the one who should apologize," he replied.

Sensing Kiara's confusion, he continued, "I never blamed you for this. I didn't blame anyone for my mother's death but... well, my mother. It's just... well, you're right, she's still my mother, through and through. I wanted a chance to see her one last time, to say goodbye. I never got that chance.

"Coming out here, I felt a connection. I felt close to her. My cubhood wasn't that happy, but there were some good memories. And I always kinda held out hope that... you know, maybe she'd come around. I think years of living close to Scar messed with her mind."

Kiara had stopped crying, but was still quiet, her gaze centered off in the distance. Kovu took the moment to lean down and lick her face, grooming it and cleaning it of that which dirtied it. When he was through, he smiled down at her. "But I was wrong to come out here as often as I have. To worry you."

"Why?" asked Kiara.

"Because you're my family now, silly," he grinned. "Through high water and through any other troubles we might face."

For the first time since the reunification of the prides, or so Kovu could remember, Kiara smiled, planting an earnest lick on his cheek.

"I'm just sad we had to see her that way," Kovu said. "Some of the other lionesses told me she could actually be quite nice when she was younger... like, our age."

Kiara shrugged. "'It's in de past'," she said in the voice of a certain mandrill, smiling. But her features soon turned into a frown. "So... do you want to keep looking? I don't know if something of her is still left, but... maybe?"

Though the invitation seemed promising at first, Kovu quickly shook his head, and turned away from the ravine. "Nah," he said. "I'll need to get over it eventually. Might as well start now."

The future king of the Pride Lands walked from the ravine where he'd spent many of his more recent days, his queen at his side, as they talked, carefree, of things of little importance.

Behind them, barely visible from where they stood atop the ravine, was the bone of a large, feline mammal, sticking out of the mud, around which two vultures were crouched around, scraping off its last remnants of life.


End file.
